Update on Fairbanks Shooting

Well, there is good news and bad news on the shooting that I blogged about a few days ago. The good news is that the guy who shot Skyler is in police custoday and Skyler is still fighting. The bad news is that it sounds like he'll be a quadrapalegic. They have had him in an induced comma for the past few days. I guess they tried taking him out of it and off of the ventilators, but his lungs started filling with fluid so they had to put him back on and back into the comma. Eric gets updates at work every once and awhile. I would like to send the family something, but I'm not sure what to send. Get well doesn't seem appropriate, but Sympathy is even less appropriate.

Shooting in Fairbanks Bar

Normally something like this I wouldn't even think twice about. First it's in Fairbanks and secondly, I don't know alot of people up there. Well, this just happens to be the time that I work with the victims mom and Eric works with the victims dad here in Bethel. Apparently some jealous guy came into the bar and shot the victim because he had started dating the guys ex. He fired 4 to 5 rounds and at least one of them hit the victim in the chest. He's currently in the hospital in Anchorage in what I can only assume in very critical condition. I'm sitting here trying to still process the information. I can only imagine what his parents are going through and what his brothers are going through. His one brother just came back from a tour in Iraq/Afghanistan about a month ago. His parents were so worried about him getting shot/IED, etc. I'm sure they never thought that they would have to worry about one of their sons here, safe in Alaska. I'll keep you all posted on how the victim is doing.

Work Christmas Pary

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Eric and I spent the day at home relaxing and were gald we didn't have to go out in the blizzard that we ended up having. We had light snow and 30 mph winds with gusts up to 49 mph. I did some reading (Ann Brashares new book The Last Summer (of you and me)) and a little crocheting. I'm working on a cardigan I saw in one of my newest crochet magazines. Hopefully I have enought year in the color I chose to finish it.

I finally took a picture of the gift I received at my work Christmas Party. The lady that had my name, her husband makes a bunch of different native crafts. He teaches a native dance fan class, but I didn't know that he also does some jewelry carving. Here's a picture of the earrings he made. This was my gift.
They are spoons. I'm not sure what the significance of them are suppose to mean and I feel a little embarassed about that. If I do find out I'll let you know.

Merry Christmas!!!!

The cats wanted to wish you all a very Happy Holiday season!

Since my sister has finally "gone public", I can say something here. I'm going to be an aunt again! Raquel and Doug will be having their 3rd boy sometime in April. We are all excited for them.

Also, a congratulations goes out to my old high school/college friend Ellen and her husband Bill. They had a little girl (Kaylee) at the end of October. Best wishes to you all!

The little fat guy

Friday morning at work we had a surprise. The ABE Center (Adult Basic Education) had an unwelcomed student trying to get some education. His name was Mr. Ondantra zibethicus. He was a fat little guy that waddled as he ran. He came in to get some coffee and decided to do a little chute running since he was in the position to anyways. We got the little guy outside and he ran away, never to come back again.

Translation of story:

Mr. Ondantra zibethicus is actually the scientific name for the Muskrat. We had the doors propped open because the building was a little warm. Apparently the muskrat thought it needed to come in and warm up. It was sitting under the coffee stand, so a couple of the guys mocked up a chute to shuttle the little guy outside. The muskrat was a chunky little thing. Unfortunately they were able to get him out of the building before we could locate a camera to get a picture of him. Here's a general picture of one for those of you that don't know what a muskrat looks like.

They are about the size of a very fat hamster. I had to call Eric as soon as I got back to my office to let him know. The first thing out of his mouth was "you let it go?" I knew he was going to say that. He's been trying out a few muskrat traps this winter on his trapping excursions.

Happy B-day little Sis!!!

Happy Birthday to my little sister. She is 27 years old today. Have a wonderful birthday and I'll give you a call tonight. By the way, Chubbs wants to say Happy Birthday too!

Door Decorating Contest

The students at the college had a door decorating contest last week, with the voting held on Friday. This morning, Cindy and I had the chance to count the ballots. My door won!!!! Alex Nicori from Kwethluk decorated my door and did a remarkable job. And what does the 1st prize winner get - - - a roundtrip plane ticket on one of our local carriers. Here's a picture of the winning door. Door #2 went to my old office and it's current occupant Jaclyn. Yeah Jaclyn!
Third place went to Carol Sanders door. She is the Admin Assistant for the NSF Grant and a few other projects.Fourth place went to the Janitor's closet.

Cardmaking with Preschoolers

The Little Red School House Preschool has a auction every year during December to try to raise money for the preschool. This year I was asked to help (actually lead) the preschooler in some cardmaking with stamping. They want to auction off the cards that the kids make. Well, today was the day! There was about 10 kids and only myself and the preschool teacher. Yikes! I was told that there were going to be some parents or more helpers available. That would have kept us a little more organized, but actually it was alot of fun. Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying themselves.Here is a picture of a couple of the "final" products. These are they types of creations that only a family member could love. Or someone who loves the craft of stamping and cardmaking! Hopefully these cards make alot of money for the preschool.Finally, here is a picture of the 10 little cardmakers. Some of them were really into it and some didn't want to do it at all.
One thing I did learn is that if you are going to be working with preschoolers, make sure you have everything cute ahead of time!!!!! I need to spend more time with the nieces and nephews to learn what to do! Well, hopefully you all will enjoy this pictures. The auction is this Friday and I'm hoping to make it. Maybe I'll have more pictures.

Back from Portland

Well, I don't know how many of you knew, but I was recently in Portland for a work conference. It was the regional (Oregon, Portland, Idaho and Alaska) meeting for the TRiO programs. TRiO is the program at the Dept. of Ed. that the Educational Talent Search program falls under. I left the Saturday after Thanksgiving and returned Thursday evening. The meeting didn't start until Sunday evening so I had some time to do a little shopping on Sunday morning. There is the Pioneer Place shopping center about 8 blocks from the hotel I stayed at. They also had a movie theater. So naturally I had to watch a movie. I decided that I wanted to see Twilight. Excellent movie, but not as good as the books. I'm addicted to the series. I'm currently about 1/2 to 3/4 through Breaking Dawn (the 4th in the series) and am dreading finishing it. As of right now there are no more books in the series after this one. The had a Ross Dress for Less and I went a little sweater happy. During the winter I like to dress warm, but I have a hard time paying full price for anything - hard time paying full price, but yet I pay about 2x as much for things living in Bethel?????? Anyways, I got 6 different sweaters that I plan on wearing alot!

Back to the meeting. We stayed at the Marriott Downtown. I helped with registration check-in and met some nice people. We had some good sessions on our different TRiO programs (Talent Search, Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers). I got to meet one of our big supporters in Washington, DC with the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE). Angelica Vialpando (who is actually from Laramie, WY) is a great asset out there. Since she grew up in Wyoming, she understands the rural, small town thing. They are trying to talk me into Policy Seminar in Washington, DC in March to talk about my unique situation out here. We'll see.

On Tuesday night we had our Banquet and Silent Auction. I made a qaspeq for it. A qaspeq is a short-pullover type of top that the Yupik Alaskans in this area wear alot.

This is one that I made for myself to wear for our Thanksgiving potluck at work, but I also took it to Portland to wear at the meeting so I could show everyone what the qaspeq actually looked like.The qaspeq only brought in $35, but that's okay. It's all for a good cause. It goes to scholarships for TRiO students.

I spent all day Thursday either in airports or on airplane, 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. I'm now enjoying what little is left of my weekend before I have to go back to work tomorrow!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!!

Eric and I spent a quiet morning hanging around the house. About 11:00 am, Eric went out to check on a few of his muskrat traps. At 1:00 pm, we got in the vehicle and drove over to Greg & Amy Ponsness' house for a mid-afternoon turkey feast. The dessert spread alone had 7 different types of pies/cakes/bars. We met some new people that work with Greg at the pharmacy at YKHC. We sat and talk and then played some dominoes. Greg & Amy have 1 boy Lars (10) and 2 adorable girls, Ashley (8) & Karlyn (6). Karlyn's birthday is the day after Eric's. We teased her that she was going to have a joint birthday party with Eric.

Well, I think it's time to relax a little and then go to sleep. I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day.

Dog Days

Well, our dog sitting days are a little early this year. For the past 2 years we have dog sat over the Christmas holiday for one of Eric's co-workers. This year they have decided to go on vacation early. They are leaving for Anchorage tomorrow and then for Hawaii on Saturday. They will be gone for a 3 weeks. The cats are in a re-acquintance period with Sadie, the dog. Sadie has been her for about 2 hours and she has spent the whole time downstairs by the entryway. Poor thing.

We had our Thanksgiving potluck at work yesterday. Oh my gosh, did we have food! One thing we know how to do well is potlucks. We had it all from bacon wrapped scallops to pumpkin pie! I'm so excited we get off early tomorrow from work!!!!

Happy Birthday Eric!!!

Well, today is Eric's birthday. His mom sent us a wonderful present..... Pizza Corner pizza!!!! This is one of the best pizza's there is in the midwest. It just so happens that there is a distributor in Anchorage and Eric's mom got in touch with them and had some shipped (as in cargo plane) to us!After we picked up the pizzas at the Cargo place we stopped at the post office and I hoped that my gift for Eric was in the mail. It was! For a few months now since his supervisor brought one with him to work, Eric has been wanting to get a SPOT Satellite Messenger.

This is actually a very practical gift for him because during the winter he likes to go out trapping on the snowmachine. He can send me email messages be to me to let me know he's okay. I was able to get a good price on this because I'm a certified Hunter Instructor. Plus, 10% of my purchase goes back to the IHEA (International Hunter Education Association). I also got a year of tracking (normally $50) for free. Yeah IHEA!!!!

Well, I better go check on the Angel Food cake that we are having as a birthday cake. Catch y'all later!

Stamping Sunday

My stamp group got together yesterday and we had some fun. I was working with a set of papers called Bella Rose and the colors Pink Piourette, Riding Hood Red and a little bit of Kiwi Kiss. The Bella Rose paper is much better in person then what photos show.

Can You Hear Me Now?

This is a line that some of you may be familiar with. If you aren't, you haven't had the chance of watching Brock Lesnar on UFC. Last night there was a pay-per-view fight for the Heavyweight Title between Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture. So naturally Eric and I had to get it. We invited a few people over, had some good food and watched some good fights. Some of you may be asking what is so important about Brock Lesnar? Well, Brock kinda grew up down the road from me in a sense. He went to school in the next town over that was only 20 miles from my parents' farm. I think we might have even gone to CCD (catechism) classes together when we were younger. Anyways, back to the fight. Brock towers over the guy he's fighting. Randy Couture is only 220 lbs and stands 6'2" while Brock is 270 lbs and stands 6'3". I don't think these heights are correct though because Brock really towered over Randy. Weight wasn't the only think that was a major difference. Randy is 45 years old, while Brock is only 31. Round 1 was a very good round with both of them showing strengths and weaknesses. Round 2 is where it all happened. Brock caught Randy offguard and it was them his for the taking. The punch floored Randy and Brock got on top of him and started wailing away. Randy didn't have a chance. If you get a chance to see the fight it is worth watching. I can just imagine the excitement around Webster, SD today. Nothing like a hometown boy making it, especially with a Title belt around his waist. Good job Brock! Make South Dakota proud.

Harlem All Stars

I'm sure you have all heard of the Harlem Globetrotters. Well, the Harlem All Stars are kinda like a branch of the Harlem Globetrotters. MeadowLark Lemon started the All Stars after he retired from the Globetrotters. And now what does this have to do with me? We were lucky to be graced by the presence of 4 of the All Stars on Monday night. They were up here to go to one of the small villages (Goodnews Bay) to boost village moral and it just so happened that someone talked them into doing a show here in Bethel. Since it was a Monday night, Eric and I didn't have anything going on and thought we would check out the show. It was a 7:00 pm show so we left the house at 6:35 pm. When we got to the high school there was a pretty long line already. We stood in the line for about 15-20 minutes. By the time we got to the doors, the line was even longer then where we started at. The show itself was pretty typical of the Globetrotters. The figure 8 passing, the audience purse trick, the water on someone in the crowd, the "we want you to make a basket, down there". We couldn't hear alot of the banter because the guys weren't wearing mikes. The show was done as a fund raiser for the Bethel Rec Center/Pool fund. They raised over $8,000! We desperately need a Rec Center or someplace in town where the kids can hang out at.

Friends of the NRA

Bethel had their annual Friends of the NRA banquest last night. For those of you that don't know NRA states for the National Rifle Association. Eric and went with another couple. We got to hear about some of the things that the Friends of the NRA are doing in Alaska. Sponsoring shooting programs and such. FNRA has sponsored a few of the programs that we had Olympic winners in. We had a young lady from Valdez that won a silver medal at the Junior Olympics in shooting. Also at the Bejing Olympics we had an Alaskan women take home the bronze medal. She also benefited from some the of FNRA monies. It's good hearing that the money goes to support programs like this. Way to go WOMEN!

Now back to Eric and I. We didn't win any guns :( We bid on a few things in the auctions, but stuff went pretty high. It was mostly going to get out of the house and talk to people you know. Eric was the only person from his office to go. There were a few people from the College, maybe 6 of us. I wish more people would get involved with events like this, especially since gun accidents are a major cause of alot of emergency room visits. There was just 2 boys up in Little Diomede, which is an island really close to Russia, that were playing around with guns. It was loaded and one accidently shot another and he died. We always hear about the bad things like this, but we never hear about good things. Good things which are actually because of programs like the Eddie the Safety Eagle program that the FNRA does. A girl up in Aniak (a village upriver from us) had spotted a loaded gun of some sort somewhere and called the State Troopers to let them know. This was directly because of the the FNRA program.

Anyways, that was my Saturday evening. I'll write more later!

What Have You Read Lately?

I thought I would do something different here and write about a book I have recently read. For months, my older sister has been telling me about a book series called The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. Well, I was finally able to get my name on the hold list at our library for this book and let me tell you, it was definitely worth the wait. Once I started the book I could not put it down! I read the book (about 500 pages) over a 2 day span. Just to give you a little background on the book, it's about a teenage girl who falls for a vampire. It may not sound like much of a book but believe me it's worth it! Now I'm just waiting for the next book in the series to get brought back to the library. I made the mistake of not going to the library to check out the book when I saw that it was in. I check about noon on Monday and there was 1 of the 2 copies still available. I decided that I would go over about 3:30 pm to get a little break in the afternoon. SOMEBODY CHECKED IT OUT!!!!! I can not believe that. Now I have to wait about 28 days to read the next book in the series. Actually I won't because I'm not that patient and I order the rest of the series on Amazon.

Going back to the Twilight book, they are making (actually have already made) a movie out of the book. It comes out on November 20. From the previews it looks pretty good, but I love the book so it will have to be pretty great.

So if you are in the mood for some quick reading, but a great story I highly recommend the Twilight Series. But if you get to New Moon (the second book) before I do, don't spoil it for me. I'm trying my hardest to stay away from the spoilers on Stephenie Meyers website;)

History is Made

Well, most of you should have heard before you went to bed, but it looks like history was made today. Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. This means that you all are making us take back VP candidate Sarah Palin. How dare you all! Just kidding. She actually has been pretty good for the state of Alaska. Rumor has it if Senator Ted Stevens gets re-elected and then booted out, she may replace him with herself. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!
We had a pretty good halloween up here. At work we always have a halloween party. A good portion of the faculty, staff and students dress up. Here is a picture of me as Wilma Flintstone with one of our Financial Aid coordinators as a punk rocker. She wanted to go for the spiky hair look, but couldn't get it to stand.

This picture is of our other Financial Aid coordinators. She came dressed as a tornado. She used her kids toys with pins and thread to hold them on. She also did a great job of getting her hair to go straight up.

And finally here is a picture of our Campus Director sitting on our Wellness Coordinator who was dressed as a Whoopie Cushion. She had a little can of noise putty that she would play around with.
All of my hard work must have paid off on the costume. I ended up tying for Most Creative costume as voted by Employees and students. I ended up tying with Jaclyn the Tornado.

When we got home from work, I got all the candy ready for all the trick or treaters. Yeah, I guess you don't get too many trick or treaters when the High School has there carnival on the same night. Something I will never understand though is the trick or treaters that come out after 10 pm. We had the doorbell ring at 10:10, 10:30 and 11:00 pm. Needless to say, we didn't answer them. So that was my Halloween, how was yours?

Stretch Hummer

Well, I started this post a week ago hoping I would have some pictures to post with it, but alas people have not sent any to me yet.

The night started off like any other Bethel evening. Eric and I were having supper with Greg and Amy, some of our friends here. About 8:30 pm, Amy gets a call from someone asking her if she could do something. Amy explains that she has company and hangs up. Well, I find out that the someone happens to be Andy (one of the high school science teachers) that we both know and she invited Amy to a 40th birthday party for one of the high school teachers. I was actually invited to this party too but told Andy that I couldn't make it because I already had plans.

Apparently a bunch of her closest friends (not Amy & I, we're just friends) splurged to get her a ride in the Hummer Stretch Limo that Bethel has recently acquired. For those of you that know Bethel, you are probably thinking, "what, Bethel of all places has a limo?". Oh we don't just have 1 limo, we have 2. We have a regular Cady limo and then the Hummer.

Okay, back to the story - Amy and I were debating if we wanted to go into town for the party when about 9:30 pm we get a knock on the door. As Amy opened the door, we see the Hummer limo outside. I guess the limo was a little late and was trying to make it up to the birthday girl. Since the birthday girl actually only lives 2 houses down from where Eric and I live we decided to go and have some fun.

The hummer has seating on one side and in the back and comfortably fits 8 people and you could probably squeeze in another 2. The other side of the limo has a "counter" with spots to stick bottles and hold glasses. Of course, since Bethel is a damp town the limo company has decided that there will be no alcohol in the vehicles. And since Bethel can get a bit muddy, everyone has to take off their shoes before they hop into the limo. All shoes are corraled into a rubbermaid tub and given back when you get out of the vehicle.

We got to go through town listening to the awesome cd/music system while strobe type lights were flashing all over. Once we got to the party location (the b-day girl's house) we had some champagne to toast and then they had a bunch of smoke oysters (about 20 lbs worth!). Amy and I partied until about midnight, but a few of the die-hards partied until 2 am.

So, that was my first real experience in a limo and it happened in Bethel of all places.

ps - once I get pictures (if) I'll try to post a few

Bootleggers Playing Hide and Seek on the Tundra

This is the title of an article that was featured in the New York Times. You know you have a problem when the New York Times does an article on your community. Check it out for yourself here. If for some reason the link doesn't work to to the New York Times and search for Bootlegger on Tundra. That should bring it up. Basically it's talking about the problem we have with the sale of bootlegged alcohol. A fifth of R & R (Rich & Rare) whiskey, which is a bottom shelf brand, costs a mere $10 in Anchorage, but can sell for $300 in a dry village. Two months ago, state troopers in Aniak, about 90 miles to the northeast of us here in Bethel, reported chasing two drunken bootleggers 25 miles up the Kuskokwim River, sometimes at speeds topping 40 miles an hour. The suspects were finally caught — with five bottles of vodka.

Alcohol is a battle that way too many rural Alaskans have to deal with!

Cards I forgot to Post

I made some cards a few weeks back and forgot to post them so you all could see. Here they are! I liked the idea of using black as the main card in the following example. Not sure on the designer paper and stuff, but it was just an experiment.Same with this one, an experiment. I love everything about this card, but I don't know about the designer paper. When I'm trying a card for the first time and don't know how it's going to turn out, I like to use scrap type paper. That won't be as easy now considering I donated alot of that paper to the TWC (Tundra Women's Coalition).This is probably one of my favorite cards that I have done. I love the idea of having a cut-out with a spinner focus. This is actually pretty easy to do. I send it as a birthday card to a friend. Hopefully she likes it as much as I do!
Once again, I am using one of my favorite stamp sets, the Embrace Life. This is a pocket card. I made about 6 of these for a swap, but ran out of time to get signed up. Guess I'll just wait for another swap or send them out as RAKs (random acts of kindness).

Stamping Saturday

Well, I was fiinally able to get some more stamping/crafting done on Saturday. Here is one of the ideas I had for Halloween treats for the people at work.These cute little things hold a peppermint patty in them. I saw this on one of the blogs that I follow and thought it was just the cutest thing.

Here's a box full of spiders. Don't you wish all spiders looked like this? I love the one in the bottom center. It's looking over at the one beside like it might be trying to attack him. I also love the ones that are really cross-eyed. I think everyone at work will love them!

Some of the other things I did today are three different cards. The first one includes stamps from one of my favorite stamp sets. It's called Embrace Life.This card uses the stamp set Delight in Life. Another one of my faves. I also tried something new on all of these cards by dyeing my one ribbon. I took plain white ribbon and ran it across the stamping pads. Taada, customized colored ribbon! I also trying chalking on this card. I took my embossing pens and "colored" in the flowers. Then I put the chalk on top of the embossing liquid. I love how it makes the flowers look watercolored.This card uses the Berry Bliss papers from the old catalog. I had some leftovers from my stamping group that I thought I would try to use up. Once again I dyed the ribbon using the Chocolate Chip color. I like this technique and think I'll use it alot.

Well, I can't wait to see what I get done today. Happy stamping to you all!

Snow

No, we didn't get more snow but I wanted to show you all the snow we did get on Thursday and Friday. Someone said we got about 4 inches. I'll let you decide for yourself.

This is looking outside our front door from the second floor.This is looking out to the north from the same spot. No snow today, which is good. I'm hoping that we get warm enough to melt all of this snow.

All of this snow is getting Eric excited for the trapping season though. We went down to one of the repair shops to see if Eric could get his sled (snowmachine, er snowmobile) ready for the season. He's got all of his trapping books/magazines/catalogs spread out seeing what he needs to order. We've also had the pleasure of watching a few trapping dvds. I think he is going to try to snare some wolves this year and hopefully more lynx and wolverine.

Where did Fall go?

Well, I can say winter is finally here. Fall has decided it didn't want to stick around. Yesterday was the perfect fall day. The sun was out and shining bright. The trees still had some beautiful leaves on them and the temperatures were chilly but not too bad.

Fastfoward to this morning.......................

Temperatures hovering around 30 degress, but a nasty wind causing temps with windchill to be right around 8 degrees. Since it's dark here until about 9:30 am, you cannot tell what the weather is really doing outside unless you are standing in it. Once the sun came up we could tell that it wasn't going to be a pleasant day. It has been blowing snow all day. I don't think much has accumulated, but we cannot really tell because of the wind. I wish I had the camera here at work to show you. It's the type of snow that fall sideways, parallel to the ground.

I should have just stayed home this morning. On top of the blowing snow, they are still working on trying to get the siding done on the building before it gest too bad. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but since it was so cold this morning, they had to put their air compressor in the entry way that just so happens to be on the other side of the wall of my office. I was joking around with one of the workers and he said that it would only go off every 10 minutes or so. Well, at least it's not every 5! Since a few of these guys had started with the project when it started in July I got to know a few of them when my camps were gong on. Apparently they were joking around about putting the compressor because they knew I'd be getting the noise. Anywho, so every 10 minutes roughly I would hear the air compressor kick on to build back up the pressure. They about noon, since they had the air compressor where they did, it over loaded the breaker and it tripped. This just so happens to be the same breaker that my computer is plugged in to. After resetting the breaker, I thought we would have our (my) problems fixed. Boy was I wrong. They did decided to move the air compressor outside, but they are now working RIGHT outside my window! The scaffolding is literally 2 feet below my window and they are screwing in the siding right above my window. Although it has been quiet the past 30 minutes. Maybe they are gone for lunch. I can hope.

Anyways - I just wanted to let you all know that no matter how cold you are right now you could always be me!

First Official Snow Fall

It is officially snowing in Bethel Alaska today. Of course it is the big heavy wet stuff that doesn't stick around, but still it's snow! When I looked out my window this morning I saw rain that didn't look like rain. It looked like the consistancy of snow, but it was falling like rain. Very strange. I've never seen anything like it.

On a side note to make this post a little longer, Barrow which is the northernmost city in the country will host it's first ever post-season football game. This will be the only game in the history of football (I think) to be played above the Artic Circle. Barrow only started football at the high school in 2006. The team is 7-1 and is excited about hosting the post-season first round game. It will be this Saturday and average temps for this time of year in Barrow is 21. Record lows were -12. Here's hoping to them not having a record season with the temps! Actually they are thing in the mid 20s.

Well, I better get back to work. Happy Belated Birthday Karen! You need to update your blog! I'm sending you a card, so you should expect it sometime early next week.

Quivet Smoke Ring

Well, there was a guy at work the other week selling some of his wife's home made items. One of the things he was selling was quivet smoke rings. I've wanted a quivet smoke ring since we moved here and I first saw them. Quivet is the underhairs of the muskox. This is what keeps them warm in the harsh Alaska/Canada winters. I finally decided to get one. Here's a picture of Eric's muskox with the smokering beside it.
Here's Chubbs modelling the smoke ring. I think he should become a professional kitty model. Look how he is sitting so proud with it. Actually we kinda had to bribe him. Eric was petting him until I was ready with the camera. When I was ready, he pulled his hand away causing Chubbs to look up at him. That's when I snapped the picture.Now here's me modelling the smokering. Quivet is suppose to be much warmer than wool be not even half as thick. I'll let you know here when it gets cold enough to wear it. Might not be too long the way the morning temperatures are going. It's been in the high 20s the past few mornings.

Groceries are Here!

Well, the barge has arrived early and I went down to get the groceries. You would think $1000 in groceries would look like alot more. I'll show you a picture and let me know what you think????Here is the main stock. We have everything from papertowels to canned veggies to cereal to laundry detergant to kitty litter and food. I'm not exactly sure how much this would be down in the lower 48, but I'm sure it would be around the $600 range.Then of course, Eric needed to get some gardening soil for next summer. Here is what 15 bags of soil/fertilizer looks like in the back of the truck. We need the soil pretty bad up here. Our garden didn't do too well this year. This is what our garden yielded.

We had a few more peas and strawberries that were picked earlier this fall/summer maybe another 2 batches like this one. This was all the bigger the carrots got. We planted alot of them and weren't able to get to them to weed them out. Oops!

The Mighty Hunter

The mighty hunter is back with a semi-successful hunt. The main reason for the hunt was to get a bear, grizzly that is. They saw something like 60 bears, but over half of them (40-ish) were sows with cubs. This one was just sitting on its butt eating blueberries! It's the tiny blob in the white circle.Here is the mighty hunter waiting to get himself a caribou.Here's the caribou that the mighty hunter got.Here's the caribou head on the back of the mighty hunter.This is what a covered piano on a raft looks like.

No, I'm just kidding. It's actually the caribou headSo that is the trip of the mighty hunter. No bear, but a pretty nice looking caribou!

After 2 weeks, it's nice to have the husband back. It's hard to believe it's been a year already (actually last Monday was the "official" date) since we've been married. We're still working on the whole annivesary gift thing. I'll keep you posted!

Saturday Night Live

I'm not sure if any of you saw Saturday Night Live last night, but if you didn't I suggest you go to the Saturday Night Live website and watch the video for the Sarah Palin (played by Tina Fey)/Hilary Clinton (played by Amy Poehler) clip. Or you can click on the link and watch it from that. It was hilarious. Just a few of the topics covered were their views on foreign policy, global warming and the Bush Doctrine:

HC: I believe that diplomacy is the cornerstone of any foreign policy
SP: I can see Russia from my house

HC: I believe that Global Warming is caused by man.
SP: I believe that Global Warming is god hugging us closer

HC: I don't believe in the Bush Doctrine
SP: I don't know what you mean
(see Sarah Palins interview with Charles Gibson)

Then they talked a little about the sexism in poltics and SP said don't refer to me as a MILF (if I have to explain what a MILF is, you don't need to know ;)

Life as a Bachelorette

Well, Eric has been gone since Saturday on his float trip with his buddy Bryce. I had to drop the off at PaPa Bear Adventures (Ptarmigan Air). This company is only about 1/2 mile down the road, but because of some land issue problems (I think I talked about that before, if not let me know and I'll give you a rundown), we had to make a trip of about 6.5 miles for our 1/2 mile trip. Anyways, they are trying to do some bear hunting while floating the Kanektok River. (This link is for the company that fly them to the drop-off point.) Hopefully they are doing good. I haven't heard from them yet, but they have a satellite phone with them. It's $2.00/minute and I'm not sure how the battery is. They are suppose to be done and back on September 20. They may come in early if they get their hunt done. So until Eric gets back I probably won't have any pictures to post (Eric has the camera)!

On another note, I got to help out with the high school's Hunter's Education course yesterday. We did a portion of the field course where they go out and work on whether a situation would be a good shot or not. Tomorrow we get to do the air rifle course for shooting performance. I'm so glad that I got myself certified to help with the Hunter's Safety course. It's very obvious that it's needed here in Bethel, so that means it's needed even more in the villages. I'm hoping I can work this into camps next summer.

Speaking of camps, I'm not sure if you all remember my little breakdown this summer over the people in Washington DC calling and talking about pulling funding for the program (more importantly my job!). Anyways, we got a letter in the mail from the Department of Education stating that our program was slated for non-continuation of funding, but since we have shown that we are working on improving our numbers they feel that we are showing progress and decided to let us keep our funding. Big load off the shoulders. Another new development that has come into play is that I am being put on a new grant as the program manager. We haven't gotten the funding yet, probably won't know until sometime next summer. I'll tell you more about it as the details play out. I'm not sure who up here reads my blog, but I don't want to be saying too much because certain people may not know yet.

Well, I am going to get back to surfing the web. Talk to you all soon.

Two thousand and sixty-seven

What in the heck does this subject title mean you may be asking yourself. Well, that is the amount of the PFD checks this year. You heard me right Linda and Joe. The Permanent Dividend Fund checks this year are the highest they have ever been. Imagine that with the price of gas and companies making record profits, it only makes since that the PFD would be a record high too! Read all about the PFD in our own Anchorage Daily News. On top of this before Miss VP Palin went to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis she approved a $1,200 "resource rebate" to help cover some of the high cost of heating oil and electricity. And to top it all off, Eric and I are actually now eligible to receive this yearly payment. But there is a catch. You have to "apply" each year to be eligilbe to receive it. It doesn't automatically arrive to you just because you live here. I feel sorry for those that did not apply or forgot to apply. They won't even get the resource rebate. Sucks to be them! I guess it does "pay" to live up here!

For those of you who are interested in how this PFD was figured out, check out this PDF!

(That's alot of acronyms that sound too similar)

Laboring on Labor Day - sort of

So what did all of you do on your Labor Day? I spent the morning out on the tundra picking blueberries while Eric sighted in his rifle for his upcoming float trip. You can pretty much go anywhere on the tundra and find blueberries. For those of you that have no idea what tundra looks like, here is a picture of Alaskan Tundra. This is the view pretty much in all directions from the town.For all of those wonder what a blueberry patch may look like, here is a glimpse at one. If you squint your eyes just right you should be able to see some nice looking blueberries in the picture. For those you you that cannot see any, look at the next picture.Here is a close up of the blueberries. These are actually alot easier to see then most of the blueberries. You have to catch them in the light just right to see them. There was a patch that I though I got most of the berries from. I started walking away and turned around to check on something and saw a bunch of them that I missed.I'm not sure what type of plant this is, but I just love the reds and had to get a picture of it. Notice how the blueberry sticks out in this picture. One thing you might have noticed in the pictures is the coloring of the blueberries. The are actually really this light of a blue color while they are on the plant. Once you picture them though, they change color really fast.Here is our bounty of blueberries for the morning. See how the color is changing on the berries. This is only about 1 hour after picking. I picked about a quart of berries today.And finally, since I did mention that Eric was out at the Bethel Shooting Range, I thought I should include a picture of the range. Isn't it a beautiful thing? You would think with all of the hunters around here that they would have a better range. This "range" isn't even away from where they hunt. The pond on the left actually had geese hunter on it they other night!
Well, I hope you all had a great Labor Day. I will be heading back to work tomorrow. My free days/times is over for now. Catch you all later.